The biggest and brightest full moon of the year arrived Saturday night as our celestial neighbor passed closer to Earth than usual.

At 11:34 p.m. (EST) on May 5, the moon was about 356,956 km from Earth. That's about 24,623 km closer than average, AP reported.

That proximity makes the moon appear about 14 percent bigger than it would if the moon were at its farthest distance, said Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Still, the difference in appearance is so small that "you'd be very hard-pressed to detect that with the unaided eye," he said.

(China.org.cn, CNTV May 9, 2012)

周六晚间，全年最大最亮的满月上演苍穹，原因是我们的太空近邻比往常更接近地球。

据美联社报道，美国东部时间5日夜间11时34分（北京时间6日午后12时34分），地月距离约为356956千米，比平均值近了24623千米。

美国海军天文台的杰奥夫·切斯特说，较短的距离使得月亮比它在最远端时看起来大14%左右。

但他说这种区别十分微小，“凭借肉眼的话，人们需要十分努力才能看得出来。”